Krafty Christmas Cards

It has been a little over a year since I purchased a Silhouette Cameo digital cutting machine. Since then, Silhouette America has come out with so many exciting complimentary kits and products that make the cutter even more fun to use. I’m looking forward to trying everything out including the stamping kit and various printable media. Lucky for me, Scrapbooks by Design sent a package of Printable Cotton Canvas which I will be featuring in today’s project – Krafty Christmas Cards.

The inspiration for my project came from this beautiful printed card.

via Jukebox Print

I love the how the colours pop with the white background over the brown kraft. I couldn’t quite achieve the same effect with the printable canvas but I do like the texture the material provides.

If the idea of making dozens of handmade cards is daunting to you, fear not – because the beauty of having Silhouette Studio and Cameo is being able to set up multiple items to cut. Once you have designed your project you can print and cut several copies, making it easy to complete several cards at a time.

Kraft Your Own Christmas Cards with Silhouette Printable Canvas Embellishments

Tools & Materials

• Silhouette Cameo or Portrait
• Paper Trimmer
• Martha Stewart Scoreboard
• Silhouette Printable Canvas
• Silhouette Fabric Blade
• 8.5″ x 11″ Brown Kraft Cardstock
• 8.5″ x 11″ White Cardstock

Start by cutting your kraft card bases. This is easier to do with a paper trimmer rather than setting everything up in Silhouette Studio and having to machine cut the cards. I simply cut my cardstock in half so I have 2 – 5.5″ x 8.5″ rectangles. Then I line one rectangle up on the Martha Stewart Scoreboard and run the scoring tool down at the 4 1/4″ mark. Repeat with the second rectangle and you will have two card bases ready to decorate.

Setting up your cutting files

I chose 3 simple files from the Silhouette online store. The first file is a tree that has a ready made offset (with a star on top). Open the file. Resize the image to your liking. Right click —–>Choose ungroup. This will separate the layers. Move the tree layer away from the offset onto a new mat/file. This file will house all your offset card stock cuts.

Click on the tree (without the star) and copy. Open a new file and paste the tree on the mat. Change your workspace to 8.5″ x 11″ and turn on the registration marks. Use the fill tool to colour your tree with a pattern. This file is where all your print and cut images will go.

Some of the files I used do not have a built in offset. Create your own by opening your file. Right click —–> Choose offset. Set the offset distance at 0.175. You can go up to 0.2, it depends on how much of a white offset you want. Move your inset layer and arrange with all your other inset layers. Do the same with the offset layers.

It’s up to you what images you want to use. I just wanted to give you a general idea of how I set my files up for print and cut or just regular cut.

Preparing your files for Print and Cut

You should now have two main files for printing and cutting. One mat should have all your inset printable canvas files arranged and ready to print. The other mat should have all the offset card stock  files ready to cut. Am I confusing you? Maybe just a little. Take a look at the snapshots – hopefully they will help clarify things:

I always do a test print before loading any of my Silhouette printable materials. This ensures that I haven’t forgotten to turn off print lines etc. The Silhouette printable canvas loads easily and the printed results look really nice.

When you are ready to cut the canvas files, be sure to choose the printable canvas settings and remember to change your blade. You must use the FABRIC blade to cut the canvas. Don’t forget to change back to the regular cutting blade for your cardstock files.

Once you have cut out all your pieces you can stick the canvas cut outs to their corresponding offsets. Use these cut outs to design your krafty Christmas cards.

I “wrote” the holiday sentiments with Silhouette sketch pens using sketch fonts which can be purchased via the Silhouette Online Store.

I waited a long time to get my hands on a Silhouette Cameo. Now over a year later I’m still using my machine frequently and I have no regrets about splurging on such a large crafting toy. If you are interested in electronic die cutters, head over to Scrapbooks by Design. Check out the Cameo and the Portrait – both machines are on sale. Maybe add them to your Christmas wish list!

Until next time…happy crafting!